Pressure-reducing valve.



T. P. FORD.

PRESSURE REDUOING VALVE.

APPLIOATION FILED 1130.11, 1909.

Patented 0612. 4, 1910.

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THOMAS l. FORD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PRESSURE-REDUCING VALVE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. d, i910.

Application filed December' 11, 1909. Serial No. 532,584.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS P. FORD, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of the city of New York, borough of Brooklyn, in the countyof' Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and IniprovedPressure-Reducing Valve, of which the following is a full, clear, andexact description.

The object of the invention is to provide a new and improved pressurereducing valve, arranged to permit the operator to conveniently andquickly set the valve with a view to reduce the pressure of water, gasor other fluid flowing through the valve, to any desired degree, byusing a valve arranged to open by initial pressure and to close byreduced pressure, the valve being controlled by pressure action ondifferent piston areas having connection wit-h the said valve, and beingarranged to permit manual control for rendering any one of the pistonsactive at a time. This construction allows the opening of the valve tobe greater for a given reduction than is possible where a valve isequipped with a spring, and used in connection with water pressurereduction. It is therefore particularly applicable as a pressure reducerin fire stand pipes in tall buildings, where the full pressure, due tothe height of the building, would be dangerous to apply on lire hosenozzles at the lower floor or floors, and yet where conditions requirethat it is necessary that a valve be installed that will reduce thepressure without diminishing the supply to several lire nozzles, theinstallation of an intermediate tank at a given point in a buildingbeing thus entirely dispensed with.

A practical embodiment of the invention is represented in theaccompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in whichsimilar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in bothviews.

Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of the reducing valve; and Fig. 2is a similar view of the pressure devices in a different position fromthe one shown in Fig. l.

The valve body A of the reducing valve is connected at its inlet B witha pipe C, leading to a source of fluid pressure supply, and the outlet Dof the valve body A is connected with a pipe E for carrying the fluidunder reduced pressure to a suitable place of discharge. Intermediatethe inlet B and the outlet D is arranged a valve seat F, controlled by avalve G arranged in the outlet side of the valve body A and having itsstem I-I extending through the valve seat F into the initial pressureside of the valve body A, as plainly indicated in Fig. l. On the stein Hare secured or formed the pistons I and I of different diameters andfitted to travel in corresponding cylinders J and J of which thecylinder J opens into the inlet or initial pressure side of the valvebody A and is secured to the latter, while the cylinder J opens at itsinner end into the outer end of the cylinder J and is secured thereto,while the outer end of the cylinder J is open to the atmosphere. Theouter portion I-I of the stem II is made hollow and provided with portsa, b and c, of which the port a opens. into the inner end ofI thecylinder J, while the port b opens into the space between the pistons Iand I and the outer port c is open to the atmosphere. In the hollowportion Il of the stein II is mounted to slide a valve K, having itsvalve stem K extending through a cap L, held on the outer end of thestein II, and the outer end of the stein K is provided with a handle K2adapted to be taken hold of by the operator for shifting the valve K inthe hollow portion II of the stein II. Now, when the several parts arein the position shown in Fig. l and the fluid passes into the valve bodyA by way of the inlet B, then the valve G is opened by the action of'the initial pressure on the said valve Gr, it being understood that thevalve G has a larger area than the piston I, and. the amount of saidopening of the valve is in proportion to the amount of fluid required onthe low pressure side to compensate -for the discharge from the lowpressure side. Vhen the discharge is stopped, and the amount of reducedpressure on the outlet side of the valve G (which pressure acts on theentire area of the valve Gr) is sufficient to counterbalance the highpressure, which is acting on a resultant area that is equal to thedifference between the area of the valve G and the area of the piston I,then the entire mechanism moves to a closed position. It is obvioustherefore that the valve will close at a pressure less than the inletpressure, because on the inlet or high pressure side the operative areafor pressure to act on is the difference of areas between the lOb valveG and the piston l, while on the outlet or reduced pressure side thepressure acts on the entire area of the valve G.

F rom the foregoing it will be seen that the iiuid passes under reducedpressure into the outlet D and to the place of discharge, and when it isdesired to carry a higher reduced pressure at the outlet side D, thenthe operator moves the handle K2 in an outward direction until the valveK has passed the port Z) (see Fig. 2), that is, the liuid also passesfrom the inner end of the cylinder J by way of the port a, the hollowstem portion H and port into the space between the pistons and I', sothat pressure on both faces of the piston I is equalized at initial orhigh pressure, while this pressure is exerted against the inner face ofthe piston I, and as the latter is smaller than the piston I, it isevident that the valve G, by a preponderance of a pressure to open it,which preponderance is greater than was the case when the larger pistonI is engaged, will require a higher reduced pressure on the outlet sideand acting upon the entire surface of the valve G to balance or closeit. It is therefore obvious that a plurality of surfaces of differentareas can be included in the construction, and that the introduction ofany one of these surfaces will produce different outlet or reducedpressures.

It is understood that when the valve K is in the position shown in Fig.l, the outer face of the piston I, both faces of the piston I and theouter face of the valve K are exposed to atmospheric pressure, and whenthe valve K is moved to the position shown in Fig. 2, only the outerfaces of the piston I and the valve K are exposed to atmosphericpressure. Thus one side of one of the pistons is always exposed toatmospheric pressure, while at least one inner face of one of thepistons is exposed to the pressure of the fluid passing into the valvebody A. Thus from the foregoing, it will be seen that by the arrangementdescribed no springs, weight levers and similar devices are required forobtaining reduced pressure, and it is only necessary for the operator toshift the valve K, to set the reducing valve to the desired pressure atwhich the fluid is to be delivered.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent:

1. A pressure reducing valve, comprising a valve body having a seat, aninlet and an outlet, a valve controlling said seat and movable in theoutlet side of the valve body, and a plurality of manually-controlledpistons of dierent areas connected with the said valve at the inlet sideof the valve body and bodily moving with the said valve, only one ofvthe said pistons being active at a time under the influence of theinitial pressure of the liuid, the area of the largest of the saidpistons being less than the area of the said valve, the said valve andthe said pistons being directly and solely controlled by fluid pressure,so that the valve opens under the influence of initial pressure of theHuid and closes on reduced pressure of the fluid.

2. A pressure reducing valve, comprising a valve body having a seat, aninlet and an outlet, a valve controlling the said seat and movable inthe outlet side of the valve body, a plurality of pistons in the inletside of the valve body and of different areas, and a stem connecting thepistons with each other and with the said valve by way of the said valveseat, only one of the said pistons being at a time under the influenceof the initial pressure, the area of the largest of the said pistonsbeing less than the area of the face of the said valve at the initialpressure side of the valve body, the area of the face of the valve atthe reduced pressure side of the valve body being greater than thedifference in area between the active piston and the face of the valveat the initial or high pressure side of the valve body, the said valveand the said pistons being directly and solely controlled by fluidpressure, the valve opening under the influence of initial pressure andclosing under reduced pressure.

3. A pressure reducing valve, comprising a valve body having a seat, aninlet and an outlet, a valve controlling the said seat and movable inthe outlet side of the valve body, a plurality of pistons in the initialside of the valve body and of different areas, a stem connecting thepistons with each other and with the said valve by Way of the said valveseat, only one of the said pistons being' at a time under the influenceof the initial pressure, the area of the largest of the said pistonsbeing less than the area of the face of the said valve at the initialpressure side of the valve body, the area of the face of the valve atthe reduced pressure side of the valve body being greater than thedierence in area between the active piston and the face of the valve atthe initial or high pressure side of the valve body, andmanually-controlled means for rendering one only of the said pistonsactive at a time relative to the fluid at initial pressure, the saidvalve and the said pistons being directly and solely controlled by uidpressure, the valve opening under the influence of initial pressure andclosing under reduced pressure.

4. A pressure reducing valve, comprising a valve body having a seat, ahigh pressure inlet side and a low pressure outlet side, a valvecontrolling the said seat and movable in the said low pressure side, aplurality of pistons in the said high pressure side and of dilferentareas, only one of the said pistons being at a time under the influenceof the high pressure of the fluid, and the opposite side of at least oneof the said pistons being under atmospheric pressure, a stem common tothe said pistons and the said valve, the stem connecting with the valveat the high pressure face thereof, the area of the largest of the saidpistons being less than the area of the high pressure face of the valveand the area of the reduced pressure face of the valve being' greaterthan the difference in area of the active piston and the high pressureface of the valve, and manually-controlled means for rendering only oneof the said pistons active at a time relative to the fluid at highpressure, the said valve and the said pistons being directly and solelycontrolled by fluid pressure, the valve opening under the influence ofinitial pressure and closing under reduced pressure.

5. A pressure reducing valve, comprising a valve body having a seat, ahigh pressure inlet side and a reduced pressure outlet side, a valvecontrolling the said seat and movable in the reduced pressure side ofthe valve body, a plurality of cylinders at the said high vpressureinlet side and having bores of different diameters, pistons in the saidcylinder bores, one of the pistons being active at a time under theinfluence of the high pressure of the fluid, and a stem common to thesaid pistons and the said valve and connecting with the said valve atthe high pressure side thereof, the area of the largest of the saidpistons being less than the area of the high pressure side of the valveand the area of the reduced pressure face of the valve being greaterthan the difference in the area of the active piston and theJ highpressure side of the valve, the said valve and the said pistons beingdirectly and solely controlled by fluid pressure, the valve openingunder the influence of initial pressure and closing under reducedpressure.

G. A pressure reducing va-lve, comprising a valve body having a seat, ahigh pressure inlet side and a reduced pressure outlet side, a valvecontrolling the said seat and movable in the reduced pressure side ofthe valve body, a plurality of cylinders at the said high pressure inletside and having bores of different diameters, pistons in the saidcylinder bores, only one of the pistons being active at a time under theinfluence of the high pressure of the fluid, and a stem common to thesaid pistons and the said valve and connecting with the said valve atthe high pressure side thereof, the outer portion of the said stem beinghollow and provid-ed with ports opening into the bores of the cylinders,and a 1nanually-controlled valve slidable in the said hollow stemportion, the area of the largest of the said pistons being less than thearea of the high pressure side of the valve, and the area of the reducedpressure face of the valve being greater than the difference in the areaof the active piston and the high pressure side of the valve. v

In testimony whereof I have signed by name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS P. FORD.

Witnesses:

Trino. G. Hosrnn, PHILIP D. RoLLHAUs.

